In a Pickle (ball)
Seek and you shall find...something. This is the longest story thread in FurBabies but not the longest post.
We are coming down the home stretch of a story that interweaves three themes that I set up beginning in May.
The first strand was Kate’s trip to the zoo where she meets two capybaras and discovers that they do not have happy lives.
The second strand, Poppy’s Birthday Party, established that Kate and Poppy do not get along.
Poppy really was ‘born’ in June, 2023, since the strip would have no exterior conflict without her. The Dog Family can’t really prevent Kate from doing anything, whether they are indoors or outside. In the standard Hero’s Journey, Poppy would be the Shadow, mirroring Kate’s actions and preventing her from achieving her goals.
I was always conflicted about the Hero’s Journey. It applies well to epics, but not to most other types of story, and rarely if ever to short animated films. A comic strip, which is open ended, can use it. Lucy is a Shadow to Charlie Brown.
I used this Glove and Boots Puppet video in my classes because it is hilarious and because it is the best explanation of the Hero’s Journey that I’ve ever seen.
Poppy doesn’t prevent Kate from achieving goals. Her machinations backfire and benefit Kate in the long run. The latest setup was an especially long ‘run up’ to the culmination of the current story. Kate makes a card for Poppy’s birthday, is not invited to the party, and puppy Sirius makes friends with a new pup named Chiffon (a.k.a. Chaos) who turns out to be one of Poppy’s birthday presents. They get in trouble and Poppy blames Kate. The relationship, if we can call it that, has deteriorated even further.
The third strand is the escape of Bonnie and Clyde, the zoo capybaras, who go on a rampage against defenseless vegetables in Downtown Toronto. Many of the incidents in the early comics actually happened, but not all.
Kate trains in Circus Camp on the Island and discovers that she has a talent for clowning. She receives training in unicycle riding and stilt walking that may be useful.
Kate’s clown outfit reveals her as a fan of Indiana Jones films. The gag actually came about because I visualized the sort of clown costume a kid might assemble from a miscellaneous box of clothing and props provided by camp counselors.
Poppy and her friend Iris went to Pickleball camp. As luck would have it, Kate finds this out in a camp tournament that is supposedly friendly. The game turns into a full scale attack from Poppy, who hits the ball deep into the woods. Kate goes in pursuit.
Poppy provided the ‘inciting incident’ that gets Kate away from the camp and the pickleball game and into the real story.
Meanwhile back home, Floof and Sirius are either in psychic communication with Kate or simply afraid of sleeping in the bed without her. They dominated the action for most of July during Kate’s absence (Floof became a Mad Scientist, fussed about her food, and held her own Olympic Games) but could not let them upstage the climactic part of the story. So, this is the cartoon equivalent of a film ‘cutaway’ that takes place at the same time as Kate’s adventure in the woods. Shawm sets up an important story point which I won’t give away here.
Kate’s head is full of scary monster stories told around the campfire by her friend Lewis and her friend LaVa ‘spooked’ her with a bedsheet ‘ghost’. Kate is impressionable and believes in monsters. She wears her Indy Jones hat for inspiration but her imagination literally changes the forest around her into something Other. Each background varies, portraying Kate’s thoughts.
Today it was inspired by the horror comics of the 1950s, particularly Jack Davis’ and Will Elder’s work. But there is such a thing as stretching it too far. Kate’s imagining is the actual log line for INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. Kate snaps out of the fantasy for a moment.
The big ‘reveal’ is on the weekend of August 10-11, and then the story takes a new direction that I hopefully haven’t telegraphed here.
Several readers have guessed that capybaras are involved. They may be right.
I can guarantee that no one will guess how, or where, the story goes.
I follow Tex Avery’s story rules, not Joseph Campbell’s. Avery’s first rule was “Can you put a twist in the story?”
Hopefully I was a good pupil and the ‘peekers’ won’t figure this out in advance.
Enjoy.
https://billmoyers.com/series/joseph-campbell-and-the-power-of-myth-1988/
1988 PBS series, mythologist and storyteller Joseph Campbell .
I remembered watching some of the series many years ago.
Mary Anne Meholick
You know, one day Georgia Dunn suggested Fur Babies in a comments thread under Breaking Cat News on GoComics, so I checked it out. I patiently read each one every morning with my oatmeal and toast. It's a pleasure teaching myself patience with these toons-thank you!